MSU gets $2M to boost bridge research

East Lansing — Michigan State University is getting $2 million to enhance research on the nation’s transportation infrastructure, specifically its bridges.

The East Lansing school says a Lansing-area couple designated money from their estate to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to fund an endowed faculty chair with an emphasis on bridge research.

The university says the donors, who wish to remain anonymous, both have MSU degrees. School President Lou Anna K. Simon says in a statement the gift will “deepen our capabilities in developing the infrastructure needed for the transportation of today and tomorrow.”

The donation supports the university’s Empower Extraordinary campaign, a $1.5 billion effort that publicly launched in October 2014. To date, the College of Engineering has raised more than $56 million of its $80 million Empower Extraordinary goal.

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